Mobile network operators (MNOs) have shown increasing interest in improving wireless coverage in indoor environments through the use of femtocell base stations. Femtocell base stations send and receive signals from user devices using the same licensed frequencies as the native access technology used by an MNO for their macrocell network. A femtocell base station is typically communicatively coupled to a broadband network to facilitate routing of communications to and from the MNO's network.
The most common application of femtocell base station deployment is in MNO subscriber's homes, although MNOs are now deploying femtocell base stations in larger indoor environments, such as shopping malls, sport venues, and the like, in which less than optimal coverage may be experienced by subscribers through the MNO's macrocell network. In these environments, femtocell base stations are often deployed in a cluster architecture to allow call handover with neighboring femtocell base stations.